Global Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgical Missions

Each year, members of the Division provide goiter surgery in underserved regions, where they not only care for patients but also train local physicians to work toward sustainable health care for patients suffering from goiter and other conditions. Click here to learn more about the global thyroid missions.

Division of Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery Team

As Director of the Division of Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery at Mass. Eye and Ear, Gregory W. Randolph, M.D., FACS, FACE leads a team of exceptional thyroid and parathyroid surgeons in caring for patients suffering from conditions of the thyroid and parathyroid glands. In the 1990s, Dr. Randolph pioneered a clinical intraoperative nerve monitoring program involving the anesthesia, audiology and otolaryngology departments that provides electrophysiologic nerve monitoring during thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Dr. Randolph’s work on voice and laryngeal exams has stimulated the importance of voice preservation and awareness of the role of laryngeal examination before and after thyroid surgery in the surgical community. His work on intraoperative nerve monitoring, as well as voice preservation, has led him to publish guidelines for laryngeal exam and recurrent laryngeal nerve and superior laryngeal nerve intraoperative monitoring through the International Neural Monitoring Study Group, the American Academy of Otolaryngology, the American Head and Neck Surgery Society and the American Thyroid Association.

Deeply committed to sharing this expertise with the world, Dr. Randolph has led thyroid surgical missions that use intraoperative nerve monitoring in St. Petersburg, Russia; Guangzhou, China; and in the Chernobyl region of Russia, the Ukraine, Kenya and rural India. He directs the Harvard Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery Course teaching surgeons in the United States and has directed international surgical courses in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Russia. He also founded the first Otolaryngology-based Thyroid and Parathyroid surgical fellowship in the country.

Dr. Randolph has also authored an endocrine surgical textbook, Surgery of the Thyroid and Parathyroid Glands, published by Elsevier-Saunders. This text has been nominated for a publishing industry award and has been translated into Russian, Portuguese, Turkish and Chinese.

Based at the South Suburban Center for Otolaryngology of Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Quincy, Paul M. Konowitz, M.D., FACS has a primary clinical interest that involves surgery of the thyroid and parathyroid glands with intraoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring. He has travelled to Kenya and India with Dr. Randolph to perform thyroid surgery and to teach local physicians. His surgical volume has contributed significantly to the recent milestone of over 3,000 thyroid surgical procedures being performed using intraoperative nerve monitoring by members of the thyroid division. With Dr. Randolph, he co-founded the Boston Thyroid Club in 2013 and serves as its co-director. In 2011 he was awarded the William W. Montgomery teaching award for his many years of teaching thyroid and parathyroid surgery to Harvard Otolaryngology residents. He co-founded and serves as co-director of an innovative teaching program at Massachuseets Eye and Ear, Quality, Humanism, and Professionalism (QHP), dedicted to ongoing post-graduate education for practicing physicians, as well as those in training on these important themes. His most recent publication described a new program to teach empathy to otolaryngology residents. He serves as Medical Director for the South Suburban Center for Otolaryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear with offices in Quincy, East Bridgewater, Milton, Weymouth, and Duxbury. Additionally, he is the medical director for Otolaryngology Network Development for Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

David Lesnik, M.D., trained in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Yale and was the first U.S. otolaryngologist to complete a clinical fellowship in advanced Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery at Mass. Eye and Ear in 2008. He then joined the full-time staff and practices otolaryngology and thyroid and parathyroid surgery at Mass. Eye and Ear, Stoneham. His main clinical interest is the surgical treatment of thyroid cancer.

He has presented locally and regionally on topics relating to thyroid surgery and recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring and was a member of the faculty at the Second World Congress on Thyroid Cancer in 2013. He has authored publications on thyroid and parathyroid surgery, including those in collaboration with Dr. Randolph that provide accurate radiographic identification of lymph node metastasis for patients with the most common type of thyroid cancer, papillary thyroid cancer.

Dr. Lesnik was part of the Mass. Eye and Ear Goiter Surgery Mission to Migori, Kenya in 2012 and he enjoys participating in the surgical training of Harvard Otolaryngology residents. He is professionally devoted to delivering optimal care to patients with thyroid and parathyroid disease.

Derrick T. Lin, M.D., FACS, practices head and neck surgical oncology and thyroid and parathyroid surgery at the main campus of Massachusetts Eye and Ear. He also serves as Co-Director of the Cranial Base Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

Jennifer J. Shin, M.D., S.M., graduated from Harvard Radcliffe College and Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency and pediatric fellowship training in the Harvard programs, and holds a degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Shin has a longstanding interest in evidence-based practice and clinical research, and she has been a fellow of the National Institute of Health and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is the lead editor of Evidence-Based Otolaryngology, a nationally and internationally cited textbook, which debuted in 2008 and entered its second printing in 2010. Her second book, Otolaryngology Prep and Practice, was published in 2012 and prepares specialists for the Board Certification examinations. She is the Chair-elect for the Outcomes Research and Evidence-Based Medicine Leadership Group for the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, the specialty’s primary national professional organization. She serves as Associate Editor for clinical epidemiology and outcomes research for Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, one of the highest impact journals in the field. She is now serving as Co-Chair of the expert panel convened by the Academy to develop their Clinical Consensus Statement on Pediatric Chronic Rhinosinusitis. She has received multiple awards and grants. In recent years, her patient appraisal and satisfaction scores have averaged 9.7 out of 10.

Director of Radiology for the Division of Thyroid and Parathyroid Endocrine Surgery

Mary Beth Cunnane, M.D., graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1997. Following an internship at Pennsylvania Hospital, she completed a residency in Diagnostic Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. She then completed a fellowship in Neuroradiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, prior to joining the Radiology Department at Mass. Eye and Ear in 2004. She helped initiate the Ultrasound service in the Department of Radiology; and together with her colleagues, she uses both Ultrasound and CT in an integrated fashion to assist in the diagnosis and surgical planning of patients with both thyroid and parathyroid disease.

Director of Anesthesia for the Division of Thyroid and Parathyroid Endocrine Surgery

Alvaro (Andres) Macias, M.D., is an Instructor of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School and an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He trained in anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and in regional anesthesia at the same institution. As Director of Anesthesia for Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Dr. Macias collaborates extensively with Dr. Gregory Randolph, Director of the General Otolaryngology and Thyroid and Parathyroid Endocrine Surgery Division.

Dr. Macias initially focused his research on acute lung injury, sepsis and mechanisms to reduce inflammation during acute injury. Recently, he has focused on patient safety, anesthesia for head and neck surgery, regional anesthesia and techniques to improve acute pain after surgery.

He has lectured at various Harvard Medical School anesthesia meetings and workshops and has published papers and book chapters on the fields of anesthesia for thyroid and parathyroid surgery, critical care, basic and regional anesthesia.

Additional Team Members

Thyroid Surgical Fellow Dr. Diana Caragacianu (left) and a visiting Medical Student from Germany (right). Student from all over the world visit the Thyroid Division to learn the newest techniques in thyroid and parathyroid surgery.

A senior Thyroid Division nurse, Nancy Katzuba, R.N. Nancy has been on the Division's Thyroid global mission to Kenya in 2013.

A senior Thyroid Division nurse, Joanie Cannata, R.N. Joanie has been involved with over 500 of Dr. Konowitz's cases. She is quite experienced in thyroid surgery and nerve monitoring.

Patient Stories

Research

The Division of Thyroid and Parathyroid Endocrine Surgery prides itself in the strong role that research plays in supporting and enhancing the clinical care of our patients and working towards cures for conditions of the thyroid and parathyroid glands.

Graves' Disease & Thyroid Foundation is a national non-profit that provides education and support for patients, family members, caregivers, friends and healthcare professionals. They can be contacted via email or toll free at 1-877-643-3123.